Dialogue of the Savior
Home > Gnostics > Dialogue of the Savior Dialogue of the Savior At a Glance Gospel Genre: (2/5) ** Reliability of Dating: (3/5) *** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: Estimated Range of Dating: 120-180 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Stephen Emmel's English Translation Offsite Links Geoff Trowbridge's Introduction Books Ron Cameron, ed., The Other Gospels: Non-Canonical Gospel Texts (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press 1982), pp. 38-48. Robert J. Miller, ed., The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press 1992), pp. 336-354.
James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins 1990), pp. 244-255. Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on the Dialogue of the Savior The Dialogue of the Savior is preserved in a single Coptic copy found in Codex III of the Nag Hammadi codices. According to Julian Hills in The Complete Gospels, the Dialogue of the Savior is a gospel about baptism. Hills argues: The central theme of the Dialogue is a process of salvation described in POxy 654 (the Greek fragment of Thom 2): "Let him who [seeks] not pause [until] he finds. When he finds, [he shall marvel]. When he [marvels], he shall rule. [When he has ruled, he shall find rest]" (see DialSav 20:4).
This theme supports an invitation to baptism (1-3). It is even likely that the author intended the writing as a discussion of baptism, and in particular of the question: do baptized persons belong in heaven, and or should they continue their struggle in the flesh, i.e., on earth? The author answers the question as follows. First, the writing looks backwards - it describes a moment in the past, when Jesus and his disciples were together. But the reader sees the disciples not only as historical people; he or she finds that they stand for the community's "catechumens" (converts in training) being instructed by their "teacher" (81). In this way, the instructions to the disciples in the Dialogue are probably addressed to those in the author's community who are preparing for baptism.
Ron Cameron in The Other Gospels and Julian Hills in The Complete Gospels agree that at least four different written sources lie behind the Dialogue of the Savior. Hills argues: Several things about this document make it almost certain that the final author combined various written sources to produce the present Dialogue of the Savior. First, a series of long speeches of the Lrod seem to belong together, in terms of subject-matter and style (see especially 1-3; 14; 22-23; 34-35; 96; 104). Second, several of the speeches have introductions that interrupt the flow of the dialogue (see especially in 24; 36; 37; 39; 40). Third, there are some abrupt changes of subject-matter, as if the author switched from one source to another and back again.
Cameron describes the sources as follows: Into this dialogue are inserted the following sources: (1) a creation myth (127.23-131.15) based on Genesis 1-2; (2) a cosmological list (133.16-134.24) interpreted in the wisdom tradition; and (3) a fragment of an apocalyptic vision (134.24-137.3). The final redactor has introduced the entire document with (4) an exhortation, prayer, and typically gnostic instruction about the passage of the soul through the heavens (120.2-124.22), all of which is described in terms closely related to the language of the deutero-Pauline corpus, upon which the introductory second may well be dependent. The title of the Dialogue of the Savior comes from the final redactor: while "the Lord" is used as an appelation thirty-nine times, the term "the Savior" occurs only twice in an introduction to speech.